Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

certain individuals (e.g., physicians, nurses, school

teachers, mental health professionals) come across what

they believe to be child abuse, they must report the

abuse to the proper authorities. Despite the fact that fail-

ing to report can lead to criminal penalties, many indi-

viduals who are required to report, including therapists,

do not do so. Their decision not to report is often based

on the fact that most cases do not involve serious abuse,

and such cases, if reported, are unlikely to result in pros-

ecution. Thus, reporting the abuse is likely to lead to a

lengthy and expensive legal process that will probably

result in some action to encourage the family to seek

treatment. If the family were already in therapy, mental

health professionals may judge that reporting produces

no positive outcomes. Moreover, because reporting vio-

lates confidentiality, undermines the therapeutic rela-

tionship, and is intrusive and likely damaging to the

family, mental health professionals are likely to believe

that reporting is, on balance, not worthwhile. Thus,

many clinicians have, at some time, chosen not to report

suspected child abuse.

R. Barry Ruback

See alsoChild Sexual Abuse; Intimate Partner Violence;

Public Opinion About Crime; Victim Impact Statements;

Victim Participation in the Criminal Justice System

Further Readings

Greenberg, M. S., & Ruback, R. B. (1992). After the crime:

Victim decision making.New York: Plenum.

Latane, B., & Darley, J. (1970). The unresponsive bystander:

Why doesn’t he help?New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Ruback, R. B., & Thompson, M. A. (2001).Social and

psychological consequences of violent victimization.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

REPRESSED AND

RECOVEREDMEMORIES

While one cannot deny that repressed and recovered

memories have had an effect on individuals, their fam-

ilies, and our legal system, little credible evidence

exists for massive repression. Moreover, most claims

of repression and recovered memories have alterna-

tive explanations such as ordinary forgetting or expo-

sure to suggestive situations. This entry examines

issues relating to claims of repressed and recovered

memories, the role of these claims in the legal system,

research that bears on these claims, and alternative

explanations for what might appear to be repressed

and recovered memories.

At the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud pop-

ularized the term repression to describe a mechanism

by which horrifically traumatic events are pushed into

some inaccessible corner of the unconscious. Later,

they may return to consciousness. The process is

thought to involve something other than ordinary for-

getting and remembering, and is sometimes called

massive repression or robust repression. Since Freud’s

day, the term “repression” has had a nebulous meaning

for many in the field of psychology, often being used

interchangeably with dissociation and traumatic amne-

sia and subject to great controversy. Some have sug-

gested that repression has never been proven to exist.

Because of the controversy, some writers now refer to

an umbrella term recovered memories—memory expe-

riences that someone is conscious of after not thinking

about them for a long time. This experience happens

commonly and need not be controversial unless one

assumes it involves more than ordinary forgetting and

remembering.

The topic of repressed and recovered memories has

been a hotly debated issue within the mental health pro-

fession for almost two decades. Although there is no

credible scientific support for massive repression, many

individuals who claim to have recovered repressed

memories of childhood abuse have subsequently

pressed those claims in civil and criminal courtrooms.

Most of the repressed and recovered memory reports

involve claims of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Some

have involved claims of recovered memories of mur-

ders and satanic ritual abuse. Many claims of recovered

CSA memories have been made by individuals accus-

ing family members, former neighbors, or other family

friends. Often, but not always, these memories are

recovered in individual or group psychotherapy.

Surge in Recovered

Memories and Their Effects

MMeeddiiaa CCoonnttrriibbuuttiioonn

During the late 1980s and early 1990s numerous

individuals claimed to have recovered memories of

CSA. During this period, accusations of CSA and

satanic ritual abuse escalated and peaked in the 2-year

688 ———Repressed and Recovered Memories

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